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Officials explore funds for coworking

Space would provide networking opportunities for independent workers

Local officials (from left) Byron Pelton, Logan County Commissioner; Janice Rice, Sterling City Council; Heather Brungardt, Northeastern Junior College; and Brenda Rhodes, Sterling City Council; raise their hands to indicate enthusiasm for developing a co-working space in the Sterling area following a presentation on the Certified Small Business Community Program Tuesday. (Sara Waite / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

Coworking is a growing trend in the professional world, but what is it?

And according to Danielle Lendriet, who oversees Colorado's Blueprint 2.0 program that serves economic development in rural Colorado and the Coworking 101 initiative that is part of the program, coworking spaces are a "mechanism for economic diversification."

Lendriet spoke at a presentation on the Certified Small Business Community Program, which is part of Blueprint 2.0 and the Colorado Small Business Development Center Network, Tuesday to a group of local officials that included Logan County Commissioners Byron Pelton and Joe McBride, and Sterling City Council members Janice Rice, Dave Appelhans, Alice Pitcher and Brenda Rhodes.

According to Lendriet, 20 percent of the workforce consists of remote workers, who don't have to work in an office environment. That figure doesn't include independent contractors or entrepreneurs working from their homes to build a business.

"The way that the economy is kind of shifting toward these one-person enterprises, whether they be entrepreneurs or independent contractors - it's more difficult than ever to connect and engage with that workforce," she said. "And that's really what a coworking space allows."

Coworking spaces offer independent workers an opportunity to be around other people, providing a social environment as well as serving as informal business incubators through networking and shared resources. The opportunity for people with unique skill sets to interact with one another "can really foster that kind of entrepreneurial spirit, even if that wasn't in someone's head to begin with," Lendriet said.

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The idea of a coworking space was mentioned several times by participants in the presentation, in part because Sterling was selected for the Coworking 101 initiative last year. Laurie Jones, who serves as an SBDC small business consultant in Sterling and also as the assistant at Logan County Economic Development Corporation, explained that because efforts are already underway to develop coworking space in the community, "it makes a lot of sense" to apply for funds toward that end.

That's where the Certified Small Business Community program comes in. The program offers up to $30,000 in grant funds and up to $10,000 in technical assistance funds for selected communities, explained program manager Christine Hoffman.

The program is aimed at helping rural communities diversify their economies, particularly those communities that have been hit hard by large company closures and relocations. Hoffman gave advice on applying for the program, noting that she made changes to the application after its inaugural year last year based on feedback from the applicants. However, she noted, it is a more rigorous application than other Blueprint 2.0 programs because the Certified Small Business Community program provides actual funding.

Coworking spaces is identified as one of the priority projects for the program; increasing SBDC services to the area is another. Any project that benefits the whole community will be considered, Hoffman said.

The officials present raised questions about whether the city or county would be best suited to apply as the municipality in charge of the project. Hoffman said it doesn't matter which government organization does so, but the funds must be spent within the selected community — although they can serve residents from outside those boundaries.

Hoffman said Sterling is the size of community that has a good chance of qualifying if they turn in a quality application, and they try to spread the funds out geographically within the state.

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